The inventive subject matter disclosed in this application, including applications incorporated by reference herein, relates to several technical fields, including firearm ammunition magazines, ballistic protection, tactical strategy, and counterintelligence devices.
In modern automatic and semi-automatic firearms, reloading is frequently accomplished by an ammunition storing and deploying component known as an ammunition magazine (“magazine”), which stores ammunition cartridges that may be serially fed into the firearm chamber for firing. In some firearms, magazines are fixed to the firearm, meaning that they are not designed to be removed and replaced with other magazines rapidly by a standard user operation during use of the firearm, and/or without separate tools. Some firearms implement detachable magazines, which, by contrast, may be removed and replaced during firearm use by a standard user operation during use of the firearm, without separate tools.
Firearms used in combat and other situations with potentially heavy crossfire often incorporate detachable magazines, because the serial reloading of cartridges into a fixed magazine would require too much time during use of the firearm and jeopardize the safety of the user. In such situations, a user may carry several fully loaded, detached magazines to rapidly, fully reload the firearm during engagement. Firearms using fixed magazines are better adapted to sporting or remote use (such as hunting or sniping), but even in those contexts, a detachable exchangeable magazine firearm is often used.
Both detachable and fixed magazines are typically rectangular or curved (in the instance of “banana” style clips) boxes, incorporating a spring that applies force to a movable piece called a “follower” attached to the spring, for feeding cartridges into a firing chamber, seriatim, from a magazine port, which typically has a lip (or lips) partially closing it for the retention of the cartridges until they are fed into the firing chamber. A bolt or other feeding and/or firing mechanism action may enter an open part of the port to catch an edge of, and push, a cartridge through another more open part of the port, sliding it out of the magazine and into the firing chamber (after removing a shell casing from the firing chamber, if necessary). But magazines may take a wide variety of other forms, including cylindrical shapes, without springs and followers. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,502,495. Typically, when a magazine has been emptied by use of the firearm, a last, remaining bullet may still occupy the firing chamber, until it is fired. In some magazine systems, firing that final cartridge will result in the bolt and/or action being “locked open” to signify that the magazine is empty and requires reloading or replacement. See id.; see also U.S. Pat. No. 708,794, to Browning (patent for the Colt Model 1902, which included last shot hold-open) (claim 3).
In some magazine systems, the magazine may at least roughly indicate the amount of ammunition remaining loaded in a magazine, for instance, by a “window” or other indicator of the degree to which the magazine is filled with ammunition or the degree to which the follower and/or spring have risen in the magazine due to the removal of ammunition. See, e.g., Product Literature re: CAA Tactical's Mag 17, available at http://www.caatactical.com/viewProduct.asp?ID=351&catID=318, accessed Sep. 17, 2012.
A wide variety of magazine stowing and deployment easing solutions have also been invented, such as belts, pockets, holsters and grips. Such systems may aid soldiers and other firearms users in accessing and replacing magazines. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,481,136.
Armor has been used in warfare since the dawn of civilization, beginning with the use of animal hides, as demonstrated by some early artifacts recovered in the Philippines. See generally Stone, G. C., A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms & Armor in All Countries and at All Times, at p. 22 and FIG. 82. In the copper, bronze and iron ages, metal armor plating was initiated, providing far greater protection against increasingly deadly weapons. In modern warfare, metal, ceramic and other armor plates are still used extensively in body armor, vehicles and stationary barriers. Body armor is standard issue for United States soldiers, and includes the use of protective plates to defeat small arms ammunition. See, e.g., Garamone, J., Body Armor Works, available at http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=65076 accessed Oct. 10, 2014. Armored vehicles and barriers can be outfitted for protection against such small arms, and against larger-impact explosive weapons and projectiles, such as roadside bombs and IEDs. Insinna, V., National Defense, available at http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=1633, accessed Oct. 10, 2014.
The field of counterintelligence relates to efforts to defeat and control an enemy's intelligence activities. The form of enemy intelligence subject to the inventive subject matter in this application relates to troop positions, armament, surveillance and firing sources. With respect to the latter point, the present application also relates to creating suppressive fire.
It should be understood that the disclosures in this application related to the background of the invention in, but not limited to, this section (titled “Background”) are to aid readers in comprehending the invention, and are not necessarily prior art or other publicly known aspects affecting the application; instead the disclosures in this application related to the background of the invention may comprise details of the inventor's own discoveries, work and work results, including aspects of the present invention. Nothing in the disclosures related to the background of the invention is or should be construed as an admission related to prior art or the work of others prior to the conception or reduction to practice of the present invention.